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Fira (typeface)

Fira Sans
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationHumanist
Designer(s)Erik Spiekermann
Ralph du Carrois
Commissioned byTelefónica and Mozilla Corporation
FoundrybBox Type GmbH
Date released2013
LicenseSIL Open Font License
Design based onFF Meta
Websitebboxtype.com/typefaces/FiraSans/
Latest release version4.301

Fira Sans is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Erik Spiekermann, Ralph du Carrois, Anja Meiners, Botio Nikoltchev of Carrois Type Design, and Patryk Adamczyk of Mozilla Corporation.[1][2][3][4] The typeface was originally commissioned by Telefónica and Mozilla Corporation as part of the joint effort during the development of Firefox OS. It is a slightly wider and calmer adaptation of Spiekermann's typeface Meta[5][6], which was used as Mozilla's brand typeface at the time, but optimized for legibility on (small) screens. With the name “Fira,” Mozilla wanted to communicate the concepts of fire, light, and joy, but with connotatively agnostic language intended to signal the project's global nature. Fira was released in 2013 initially under the Apache License, and later reissued under the SIL Open Font License.

In its first 2013 release, Fira Sans was available in four weights with corresponding italics: light, regular, medium, and bold. In May 2014, the number of weights was increased to 16.[7] In 2015, Mozilla added a condensed style.[8] The family has a large character set that includes text figures and small caps.

In 2016, with version 4.2, the Mozilla Corporation ended their participation in the Fira Sans project; however, the project was continued by Berlin-based foundry bBox Type GmbH and its partners.[9] That same year, bBox Type GmbH released Fira Sans version 4.301—the final iteration of Fira Sans—and announced that “any future developments will be based on FiraGO.”[9]

Fira Sans is the font of choice for the Government of New Zealand[10] and the Government of Iceland.[11]

Fira Mono

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Fira Mono
CategoryMonospaced
Designer(s)Erik Spiekermann
FoundrybBox Type GmbH
Date released2013
LicenseSIL Open Font License
Design based onFF Meta
Websitebboxtype.com/typefaces/FiraMono/
Latest release version3.206

Fira Sans is accompanied by a monospaced variant called Fira Mono, available in the weights of regular, medium, and bold.

Fira Code

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Fira Code is an extension of the Fira Mono font that contains a set of ligatures for common programming multi-character combinations. It is available in regular, medium, bold, and light, and additionally as a variable weight font.[12][13]

FiraGO

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FiraGO
CategorySans-serif
ClassificationHumanist
Designer(s)Erik Spiekermann
Commissioned byHere Technologies
FoundrybBox Type GmbH
Date releasedMarch 2018
LicenseSIL Open Font License
Design based onFira
Websitebboxtype.com/typefaces/FiraGO/
Latest release version1.001

FiraGO is a multilingual extension of Fira Sans that includes Arabic, Devanagari, Georgian, Hebrew, and Thai letters, in addition to Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabets in the typeface. In 2016, the development of FiraGO was initiated after geo data provider Here Technologies selected Fira Sans as their corporate typeface,[14] but needed the typeface to be usable for “broader language applications, especially in map applications.”[15] Subsequently, Here Technologies commissioned bBox Type GmbH for a global script extension to Fira Sans, which was expanded into FiraGO project.

Based on Fira Sans 4.3, FiraGO was released as a separate product, and will be the main font family in the group. All future updates to Fira Sans will be based on FiraGO, and as of 2018, all Fira families are issued by bBox Type, which is headed by Ralph du Carrois and Anja Meiners.[16]

Fira Math

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Released in 2019, Fira Math is a sans-serif font with Unicode math support and is developed by Stone Zeng.[17]

References

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  1. ^ "870998 – [Style Guide] Type Guidelines for Firefox OS product page". Bugzilla.mozilla.org. Retrieved 2013-08-25.
  2. ^ Erik Spiekermann, “Fira specimen uploaded”, Spiekerblog, 30 July 2013
  3. ^ “Fira Sans”, Typografie.info, 20 July 2013
  4. ^ Patryk Adamczyk, “Introducing Feura Sans, a more legible font for mobile”, Mozilla UX Quarterly, Q2 2013 (PDF Archived 2013-06-12 at the Wayback Machine)
  5. ^ Erik Spiekermann: Type Is Visible Language, Beyond Tellerrand, Düsseldorf 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggQpDu63kk0
  6. ^ Butterick, Matthew. "Fira Sans: review". Typographica. Retrieved 14 November 2014.
  7. ^ “Try Out Fira Sans: a Free, Open Source Typeface Commissioned by Mozilla”, Do not Lick, 23 May 2014
  8. ^ "Fira Sans Condensed". Font Squirrel. Retrieved 29 February 2016.
  9. ^ a b "FiraSans". bBox Type. 2016. Archived from the original on 10 December 2024. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  10. ^ "NZ Government: Typography". New Zealand Government. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
  11. ^ "Stjórnarráð Íslands - Hönnunarstaðall". Government of Iceland. Retrieved 22 January 2021.
  12. ^ Prokopov, Nikita (2021-03-08), tonsky/FiraCode, retrieved 10 March 2021
  13. ^ "Fira Code — Variable Fonts". Variable Fonts.
  14. ^ Rauch, Natalie. "Natalie Rauch // FiraGO Hebrew". Type Designer | Natalie Rauch | Germany. Archived from the original on 10 December 2024. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  15. ^ "FiraGO". bBox Type. 2018. Archived from the original on 10 December 2024. Retrieved 10 December 2024.
  16. ^ "bBox Type".
  17. ^ Zeng, Stone. "Fira Math". GitHub. Retrieved August 5, 2022.
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